Years ago, it was a common sight to see dads building miniature motorized vehicles out of lightweight one cylinder engines which were adapted for use in washing machines. By a heavy stretch of imagination, these miniature vehicles with plastic wheels (probably taken from toy carriages) could appear to resemble a car.

Inspired by this common obsession, Art Ingels, an employee of the famous Kurtis Craft Plant in Glendale, California, adapted one of the tiny, yet powerful 21/2 hp engines to a miniature car. He built a simple but rugged chassis and decided to test drive his little invention across a neighbourhood parking lot.

To his surprise the little bodiless wonder machine, scampered across the streets in what Ingels reported as 30 miles per hour. In spite of having designed and built several Indianapolis cars for the Kurtis Craft Plant, Ingels was nothing short of ecstatic about the potency of his new invention.

The little mean machine invited curious glances and an endless set of questions everywhere he took it – right from back alleys and neighbourhood parking lots to tennis courts, where Ingels made several rounds in the presence of a growing number of spectators. Several people expressed an interest in trying the vehicle, which led to further ideas on commercializing this brilliant innovation.

He bounced the thought to his boss Frank Kurtis, who was too engrossed in building race cars, to be enthused by what must have seemed like a bodiless, suspension-less toy. Queries about the car kept pouring in however, and Ingels became increasingly confident that commercially built cars of a similar design would definitely catch on, if not become a rage, at least in California which was considered the nation’s automotive hub.

The engines, usually the most expensive component of a car, were much cheaper and easily accessible. It suddenly dawned on him that his new masterpiece could be built and sold for nothing more than $150. And there were enough and more racing enthusiasts who would gladly pay that much for their very own miniature race car. It was the obvious choice, given that the other options were the ridiculously expensive imported sports cars.

In 1957, Bill Rowles, a Southern California surplus dealer, tried to get Ingels interested in the little machine’s sales possibilities. Later, Rowles met Duffy Livingstone (the builder-driver of one of the most successful sports car specials that Sothern California had produced) who came out with his own version of Ingels’ car. After one test drive, Livingstone was smitten. And proceeded to build another car. And then another. Till five or six little cars started a rage in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, that they had to discuss the possibilities of offering the cars for sale.

The first batch had 30 pieces of the yet-to-be-named wonder machine, and received ample press coverage, thanks to Rod & Custom Magazine who decided to show up unannounced with cameras in tow. The staff was treated to a ride and was more than eager to get the story in print.

Since the makers of the mean machine were too engrossed in reveling in the invention, R&C decided to christen the car and called it ‘go-kart.’ The story caught on and so did the name. Seeing what was coming, Rowles and Livingstone started what they called ‘The Go-Kart Manufacturing Company.’

People began to flock the company for orders, which led to Ingels leaving The Kurtis Craft Plant and joining partner Borelli to build his own karts. Several others followed suit and within no time, there was a gamut of kart manufacturers in the market.

Though the original Ingels kart was built around a single cylinder, two stroke engine which had been designed for a rotary power lawn-mower, the growing popularity of the concept of go-karting saw the birth of powerful two-stroke engines that karting enthusiasts seemed to lap up at the speed of light.

As more and more manufacturers plunged headlong into the fray, and as go-karting came to be widely accepted as a sport, safety regulations needed to be met and thus in Dec 1957, the Go-Kart Club of America came into being.

With some kind of governing body in place, the sport came to be more and more regularized and quickly gained popularity in many parts of the world, especially Europe, which now has some of the biggest Karting courses and training schools in the world.

Today, Karting is universally accepted as the ideal starting point for anyone considering a future in racing. Many Formula One and NASCAR drivers grew up on kart-racing, including Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Lewis Hamilton, Darell Waltrip, Lakespeed and Jeff Gordon.

 Back to Top